


Rhymes and reasons

by calcliffbas



Series: Elements 101 [5]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aangst, Badass Suki (Avatar), Character Study, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Ember Island (Avatar), Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Mild Language, Suki & Zuko (Avatar) Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:14:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26653495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calcliffbas/pseuds/calcliffbas
Summary: “Sparring would be cool,” she eventually decides. “If you want?”Annnndthere’sthe gilt-edged invitation for Zuko to get his ass kicked.The Gaang hated the play, Aang's having a rough day, and Zuko and Suki bond over how being responsible can really suck sometimes.
Relationships: Suki & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Elements 101 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926430
Comments: 7
Kudos: 130





	Rhymes and reasons

**Author's Note:**

> A quick caution before you read on – the first section of this work touches briefly on themes of cultural appropriation. Suki and Zuko use some mild language – but if you got ‘monkeyfeathers’, it’ll be fine.
> 
> If you want to talk _A:TLA_ , I’m on [Tumblr](https://calcliffbas.tumblr.com/)! :)

> _‘The people of the Earth Kingdom are diverse and strong. They are persistent and enduring.’_
> 
> – Iroh, ‘Bitter Work’.

Zuko _hates_ the Ember Island Players.

He doesn’t hate Sokka, but it _is_ pretty close.

He had _told_ them that going to see the Players was a terrible idea, but had they listened to him?

Of course not.

It’s whatever, though. Maybe he’s just cranky because he didn’t get any sleep last night. He figures that’s understandable, considering the evening’s entertainment had ended with an audience cheering at the thought of him burning to death.

Maybe that’s where he went wrong with _The Brave Turtleduck_ , Zuko thinks. Maybe audiences really do love tragic endings.

In that case, he suspects that the spirits watching the human realm are enjoying the show, because it doesn’t look like anyone got much sleep last night.

So no one’s well-rested, and everyone’s in a bad place. Wonderful.

“I mean, at least the fire gummies were pretty tasty?”

Zuko’s not the only one in the kitchen who lets out a groan.

Now he really _does_ hate Sokka.

Great.

“Really don’t want to talk about the play right now, Sokka,” Katara says tiredly. “Or – _anything_ about last night,” she adds, closing her eyes and rubbing her hand over her brow.

“But we’re all _here_ ,” Sokka whines. “Here, together, in the same place.”

“Unfortunately.” Toph’s voice drifts up from under the table.

Sokka is undeterred. “And we don’t have much time left together, you know? It’s important to make the most of the time we have together!”

“Some of us have been _trying_ to do that,” Aang mutters.

“Well,” Suki says, glancing from her boyfriend to the rest of the room. “How about a game?”

“I’m not playing Pai Sho,” Zuko says.

“Good,” Toph tells him. “You suck at it.”

He is affronted. “I do _not_.”

“Gramps told me you do, and I believe him.”

Zuko’s not quite sure how Uncle managed to tell Toph _half_ of what she _tells_ him Uncle told her. They must have spent an entire month sitting down together and drinking tea.

“Plus, your heartbeat,” she adds casually. “Like Gramps always beat you.”

_Damn it_. “I don’t _suck_ at Pai Sho,” he mutters stubbornly.

“You really do,” Toph insists stubbornly. “Don’t feel bad about it, Snoozles is crap at it, too. So you can pick something you’re both good at.”

“And that everyone can join in with,” Katara adds. “Chit Sang told me about this game called Hide and Explode, and I don’t think I want to try _that_.”

“Who’s hiding?” Aang huffs. Just like when he’d been talking about Gyatso’s _On the Freedom of the Spirit,_ Zuko has no idea what Aang’s talking about.

“Erm,” Suki fumbles with the fan she’s been twirling around. “Well, how about that game? Elements 101?”

Zuko lets his head fall back against a cupboard.

_He_ had come up with the game. And now _Sokka_ got to name it.

_Ugh_.

“Which ones haven’t we done yet?” Katara asks, gamely trying to coax Aang’s mood into something even vaguely resembling _Not A Sulk_.

“We balanced air and water last time,” Suki reminds them.

“We haven’t done fire and earth,” Sokka says, and then he frowns. “And that’s the last one, actually.”

“Congratulations,” Toph says. She’s lying down underneath the table. “You made it through Elements 101. You want to take another module for extra credit?”

“Depends on the module, I guess,” Sokka considers it. “What’s the extra credit?”

“How about an extra credit cookie?”

“We’ve got cookies?!”

“ _Tch._ No.”

Sokka wilts like a moon flower left out in broad daylight in the middle of summer. “Oh…”

Zuko rolls his eyes. “We still need to balance fire and earth before we start thinking about extra credit, you two.”

“Come on, Aang,” Katara says. “Fire and earth. You’ve done these two before, right? So you know what you’re looking for.”

“Sure I know what I’m looking for. _I’m_ not the one who’s _confused_.”

Toph coughs under the table. Zuko’s pretty sure she coughed a _word_ , but he’s not sure what it was. Judging from Aang’s scowl, though, he suspects it wasn’t very nice.

“Come on, Aang,” Suki says, and she nudges his shoulder. “You’re a smart kid – you’ve got this.”

“Of course I’ve got this!” Aang downright _glares_ at Suki. “It’s not a hard question. It’s _easy._ I don’t even see why it’d be so confusing, when there’s _clearly_ a right answer!”

“Well, if it’s so _easy_ ,” Toph drawls, “Why don’t you tell us about it, Fancy Dancer?”

Aang scowls. “ _Fine_. Fire is life. _Duh_. So it’s active. It always tries to make the first move. And earthbending is about listening. So you need to know when to _speak,_ and when to _listen_.”

He folds his arms and slides down in his chair. “I don’t know why you needed me to be the _Avatar_ to help you guys figure that out!”

Zuko exchanges a look with Katara, and thinks to himself that maybe Aang doesn’t want to be threatened with hot squats right now.

“Aang,” Katara begins gently. “We’re just trying to help you know more about the elements.”

“I know _plenty_ about the elements,” Aang says peevishly. “I’ve pretty much mastered them!”

Zuko knows Aang is good, but he also knows Aang is nowhere _close_ to wielding flames with _any_ sort of mastery. Let alone lightning. And if his fire ever burns blue, Zuko will be _amazed_.

And he knows he doesn’t have _time_ to teach him.

He tries to fight the voice in his head that whispers _maybe if you’d made a different choice in Ba Sing Se, he would have learnt by now_ , because regrets do not help you. Their weight only slows you down.

“Aang,” he begins. “You said Monk Gyatso told you that the Avatar needs to understand the four elements. Not just bend them.”

But as Aang glares at him, Zuko realises he’s said the wrong thing.

“Yeah, that’s what Gyatso said. But that’s not what you’re helping me _do_.”

“But we are _trying_ to help, Aang,” Suki says. “We’re all trying to figure things out together.”

“Well, maybe I want to figure it out on my own!” Aang snaps back. “And it’s stupid! Just because I’m the Avatar, you all want to mess about with how I bend! But I’m not going to just let you take what the monks said, and _replace_ it with what you heard growing up!”

“Look, Aang, buddy, no one’s saying that,” Sokka begins, but Aang isn’t done yet.

“No!” He cries out, turning to face Zuko with accusation, and Zuko is not ready to see that look in Aang’s eyes. He deserved it, once, and he knows that he has many sins to pay for in due time, but Aang looks like he’s ready to fly into the Avatar State _right now_.

And Zuko hates himself a little for it, but he suddenly _really_ hopes that Aang’s chakras really _are_ blocked up.

“No,” Aang repeats, looking at Zuko with bright eyes. “No, he can’t do that! He can’t just come in and take what’s – what’s _mine!_ All that stuff about chakras and attachments and letting go – you’re not one of the monks, Zuko! You’re not even an _airbender!_ And you’re _not_ the Avatar, so you can’t just come in and make it mean what you want it to mean! It’s _mine_ , and you can’t take it away from me!”

And suddenly Zuko understands.

_Ah_.

So that’s it.

_Agni_ , he hates the Ember Island Players.

Katara fidgets, because she hates seeing Aang upset, but she doesn’t say anything, and Zuko is privately quite thankful for that. He doesn’t think Aang would appreciate it if she did.

He’s not sure what Aang would appreciate right now. He can’t snap at him. Aang is twelve years old and he needs to kill the Fire Lord or the world will end. Zuko can’t make this go away with hot squats.

He can’t take him to the Sun Warriors. The dragons were dead, but now they’re still alive, and Aang is the last of his kind. Zuko wishes he’d read more of Monk Gyatso’s writings.

Zuko wishes he could talk about how Mom used to tell him stories about how the nomads danced through the air on the breeze in spring, and they were the most beautiful movements a bender could make, but he can’t. He can’t fight with the Avatar.

So he does what he always does, what he’s so good at – he lets his family down.

_I’m sorry, Mother_.

_I’m sorry, Uncle_.

This time, Zuko gives up without a fight.

“I’m gonna go down to the beach for a bit,” he manages, and he walks away.

…

Suki finds him running through some basic manoeuvres Master Piandao had taught him when he was ten.

With his firebending, he _hates_ returning to the basics. But he supposes that he had spent so long being told that being a bender and having to rely on steel to defend himself was so _shameful_ that he ended up just – sort of _ignoring_ the shame, in a way. It didn’t matter if it was the first form or the fiftieth, Father wasn’t going to care what he did either way. So he could practice to his heart’s content.

So, when he’s upset, he practices. The familiar rhythms and forms soothe his raging soul and temper the heat roaring under his skin. As he breathes deeply, he occasionally slips in some of his own variants on the conventional _katas_ , as he had never been allowed to do when firebending.

He picked his swords up because he doesn’t really want to bend right now.

Not after how Aang had yelled at him.

“Pretty crazy how he yelled at you back there.”

Zuko sighs and pauses halfway through an adapted rise from crouching _iai-goshi_ into poised _tachi-ai_ that Piandao had complimented him on the first time he had tried it.

Suki is a lot like her weapons, he thinks to himself. Pretty sharp, pretty effective, and pretty painful if she catches you unawares.

But he remembers how Aang had glared at her, and he tries to remember that he’s not the only one Aang had seemed angry at today.

“He wasn’t very nice to you, either,” he settles on.

Suki moves across the sand silently, perfectly at ease on unsteady ground. “He’s under a lot of stress, and it’s got to go somewhere. He’ll feel bad about it later.”

This conversation isn’t particularly helpful to Zuko. He had much preferred practising. “And in the meantime?”

Suki shrugs. “In the meantime, we just get used to feeling like he hates us.”

With an odd tugging sensation in his chest, Zuko is reminded of Uncle.

“That sounds like it sucks,” he thinks out loud.

“It does,” Suki shrugs again. “But that’s what some people need.”

“Okay.” Zuko can understand that. “And, uh. What about you?”

“Hmm?”

“What do you need?” He asks. Suki seems remarkably unfazed by it all.

“I’m okay. It’s kind of whatever. When I was leading the Kyoshi Warriors, sometimes the girls didn’t like my ideas, or my plan for what our next move might be. So it’s not my first time being the bad guy.”

_I’ve got a lot of experience being the bad guy, too_ , Zuko thinks. But he doesn’t say it out loud. Suki would kick his ass.

But there’s something sort of resigned in what she’s saying, like she’s just _accepted_ that Aang’s going to be mad at her and she just has to take it. And don’t get him wrong, Suki’s intimidating as shit, Zuko thinks she’s as scary as Koh – in a _very_ different way, obviously – but she’s still super cool, and she’s the only other person in their group who goes down to the beach with Toph so the younger girl has someone to help her practice sandbending.

And even if he _really_ doesn’t want to know her methods, she _does_ lead Sokka away and keep him occupied for long stretches of time whenever he gets too annoying. Which Zuko appreciates more than he can put into words.

So instead of offering Suki a gilt-edged invitation to kick his ass, he asks instead, “Well, how about if there’s anything you want to do, then?”

Suki considers the question, assesses it, calculates her answer. She’s a warrior.

“Sparring would be cool,” she eventually decides. “If you want?”

Annnnd _there’s_ the gilt-edged invitation for Zuko to get his ass kicked.

“Sparring sounds cool,” he replies.

So they spar. It’s quite fun for Zuko – he trained under Piandao, but Suki’s really good. She’s obviously used to sparring with Sokka, and it shows in her moves. She doesn’t exactly _forget_ that he’s dual-wielding – only a fool neglects to notice a _sword_ in a sparring match, and Suki is no fool – but she is clearly focussing on the danger Zuko’s right presents her with, which he finds a little amusing. He’s got a left sword, don’t he?

Sokka is an agile swordsman who seeks to finish a bout with one blow, dancing around his opponent and wearing them down whilst waiting for an opportunity to present itself. Zuko, meanwhile, looks to confront his opponent. He searches for their weaknesses like the legend of Jin-Luang, hunting them down with net and broadswords until he can overwhelm them. He had read the story in a scroll Uncle had bought at a market two years ago, and though the Earth Kingdom’s myths did not have the classical imagery or subtle poeticism of the stories his mother had read to him, Zuko had always remembered the tale of Jin-Luang, the rich young noble who had read so many adventure scrolls that he had decided to become a warrior and spent his days hunting his quarry across the world.

The Blue Spirit had learnt to wield broadswords from Master Piandao, but a fifteen-year-old Zuko had learnt from his previous delusions of literary grandeur. He wasn’t going to be _that_ pretentious.

Zuko in turn also struggles to adapt to the way Suki fights at first – she’s strong and quick, and she doesn’t make a mistake when she sees an opportunity. He’s reminded a little of Azula, but he also sees a little bit of Uncle Iroh in how she lets him tire himself out before suddenly coming back with a strike that comes straight through his defences.

He attacks, but she’s light on her feet, and it feels a bit like fighting Aang, she’s so spirits-damned elusive when he tries to close in on her. She slips around his lunges and ducks under his strokes, and she’s lightning-fast wielding two fans. If he raises his sword to block her left, her right is already striking out for his head.

Firebending demands a strong root, but Zuko knows from Piandao that you cannot present your opponent with an easy target. He isn’t a quick learner, he never has been, but he adapts to this new style of Suki’s after the second time she smashes her fan into the left side of his head.

The third time, Zuko is prepared, and he tracks the movement of a slightly-blurred fan with his left eye before dodging it neatly. The blurring is a combination of Suki’s speed and – another lesson he’s had to learn.

But Zuko has a few tricks of his own. Suki shifts her weight with speed, moving from offense to defense seemingly as the mood strikes her. So Zuko does his best to keep her at a distance, using the superior reach of his swords to keep her fans away. He’s not used to this – he usually engages the enemy as quickly as possible – but Piandao had taught him a few concepts and forms that will do the trick, and it seems to throw Suki off.

His sword is inches from her neck for a third time, and, just for fun, he gives his wrist a little twirl. The blade doesn't break Suki's skin. She raises her eyebrow.

“Fancy tricks,” she says.

Suki acknowledges her defeat by folding up her fans and sheathing them before laying them down on the sand. Then, she taunts him and stings him into testing himself at hand-to-hand, and puts him flat on his back eight times in a row without her breathing changing rhythm.

“You’ve got to teach me how you do that,” Zuko groans, looking up at the blue sky and feeling very grateful that they’re practising on sand instead of the stonework of the courtyard.

Suki smirks as she sits down next to him and looks out at the sea. “You have to use your opponent’s strength against them. See what they’re planning to do, and factor that into your next move.”

“Like earthbending.”

Suki shrugs. “Sort of, I guess. Maybe a little bit like waterbending, too. But you’ve got to listen, yeah. Like we were talking about today.”

Zuko isn’t sure what happened earlier can really count as talking. He sighs. “I think I said the wrong thing to him.”

“I don’t think he was going to listen, no matter what you said.”

Suki might mean that to absolve him of blame, but it just makes him feel worse. “I always end up saying the wrong thing.”

He is thirteen and standing up for what he believes in. He is thirteen and kneeling and begging.

Suki is quiet for a moment as she considers him.

“Kyoshi spent a long time staying out of the war,” she begins. “When I decided to lead the girls to the Earth Kingdom to fight, a lot of people opposed it. Oyaji thought that by breaking our neutrality, I was disrespecting the Kyoshi Warriors’ traditions.”

Zuko is grateful for the distraction. Suki’s voice is matter-of-fact and she outlines enough of the story for him to grasp the scene in his mind’s eye without overwhelming him with the details.

Aang will start telling a story about something he did with Gyatso and then remember that there was a dead butterfly in the kitchen that day, and it was a blue one, and Kuzon had _freaked_ , and does the Fire Nation believe anything about butterflies, Hotman? You think they represent your _soul?_ Oh, man, that’s awesome! _Flaming…_

So Zuko appreciates how Suki speaks, and he listens.

“They thought we should wait until the war came to us. I guess I thought like that for a long time, too.”

“What made you change your mind?” He eventually asks.

Her voice is even and neutral. “This angry dude with a ponytail kind of burned down my village.”

He sighs, because although now she’s grinning, he does actually feel kind of bad about it.

She relents, but the humour is still there in the way she tosses a handful of sand at his feet. “It’s just – we had to do _something_. We had to help. If you have the power to do something, and you don’t act – what are you even _doing?_ ”

_Being the perfect Prince_ , the blue dragon whispers in his mind. _Father will love you, he will want you, he will be proud of you_.

Zuko shakes himself free. That kind of redemption is not for him. The red dragon had spoken with Uncle’s voice. “Did the other warriors follow you?”

“Some of them,” Suki tells him. “Some stayed behind. I did tell them that it would be dangerous. If they wanted to protect the island instead of coming with me, it wasn’t shameful or anything.”

“Fire Lord Azulon enforced mandatory conscription in the eleventh year of his reign,” Zuko says. “Every able-bodied man and woman, irrespective of bending ability, was obliged to complete four years of military service between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five.”

“Sixteen is pretty young to be fighting a war.”

Zuko glances over at Suki. “Aren’t you sixteen?”

“Yes,” she says. “That’s why I said it.”

“Oh.” Zuko wonders how long he’s been fighting. Three years is a long time. If he ever sees Uncle again –

_When_ he sees Uncle again, he tells himself firmly, he will kneel and beg his uncle for forgiveness, and declare that any battle Zuko had waged against his kindness and faith, he had been fighting against himself and his most loyal champion.

_He's the one who's been a real father to me._

“Zuko?”

“Huh?” He blinks rapidly and realises that he is looking into the sun. He scrunches his eyes up and sees black spots in his vision.

“You went quiet for a bit.”

“Oh,” he scrambles around for a sign of what they had been talking about. “The, uh – the massed military enlistment of civilians saw a shift in Fire Nation battlefield strategy. With greater reserves to draw upon, General Bujing’s victory in the Second Fan Hong Campaign of 86 to 89 ASC was achieved despite the loss of over thirty-five percent of his forces.”

Suki doesn’t look happy with the new direction this conversation is taking, and Zuko cringes. He likes hanging out with Toph because she always talks about what she wants to talk about. Aang talks about _anything_. Mai didn’t seem to care what they talked about, and usually seemed pretty content for the two of them to just sit around in silence.

Katara will listen to what Zuko has to say, even if he doesn’t always use the right words.

_No! No, that’s – that’s not what I mean_.

They have always understood each other, he thinks.

He remembers that he’s not the only one Aang had seemed angry at today. He hopes she’s okay.

“I don’t think I’d want to fight for General Bujing,” Suki eventually decides, with a thoughtful nod to herself.

“That wouldn’t really matter,” Zuko points out. “You’d be, uh, mandated to serve. That’s why Bujing could afford so many casualties.”

“ _Still_.” Zuko recognises that tone of voice. It means he’s missed the point. His firebending instructors had used that tone all the time. “I don’t think I’d particularly like the idea of going to war knowing that my leaders would be okay with me dying.”

Zuko coughs. “It’s, uh. Not every Fire Nation commander thought like that.”

“If one of them did, it’s enough,” Suki tells him firmly. “Leadership means that you have a responsibility to those under you. You can’t sacrifice them on the altar of your ambition.”

Zuko knows she is right. You cannot sacrifice soldiers who love and defend their home. You cannot be so uncaring.

He reaches a hand up and covers his left eye. It would be cruel and wrong to be so uncaring, he thinks.

“Zuko?”

He tells Suki that looking into the sun for so long means he is still seeing spots when he blinks. She laughs, but it doesn’t sound mean, and they’re content to sit in silence for a bit.

“Leaving home must have been hard for you,” Zuko says.

“It was tough at times,” Suki allows. “I kind of led the girls into a few messy situations when we started out. I didn’t really know what I was doing for the first few weeks.”

“Me neither,” Zuko offers. “Except, uh. Weeks sort of turned into months.”

“Well,” Suki says, “I _am_ unusually competent.”

Zuko has to agree. Suki _is_ unusually competent. “Did you miss Kyoshi Island once you’d left?”

She hums thoughtfully. “I missed bits of it. Missed the people, yeah. But Kyoshi’s kind of like any other island in the Earth Kingdom. Same plants, same animals – like, we’ve got this hill, right?”

“Right,” Zuko says, to show that he’s paying attention.

“And the trees are on the hill in this, like, pattern. They go two trees, then four trees, then a couple more trees near the top of the hill. You know what I mean?”

Zuko is reminded of the cherry trees back home. “Sure.”

Suki chuckles. “Well, I think I saw that same hill, like, twenty different times in the Earth Kingdom. With the same trees in the same pattern. We made a game of it once we left Full Moon Bay.”

The Fire Nation’s national flower is the fire lily. As far as Zuko can recall, they are the only flora endemic to the Nation. Cherry trees can be found in the Earth Kingdom.

“So I didn’t really miss the island,” Suki is saying. “Because I saw it everywhere I went. But I missed _Kyoshi_ Island. Because it’s the only one. You know?”

“Yeah,” Zuko says. He thinks he knows what Suki’s saying but he’s probably lying. She probably knows he’s lying, too – she’s frighteningly competent. If she and Toph teamed up, he would probably have to hide in his room.

“I still think that Bujing dude sounds like a dick, though,” Suki says, nudging his ankle. “Wake up, Hotman.”

“Are you _serious?_ ” He mutters, opening his eyes to glare at her. The effect is probably lessened by the whining note in his voice. It reminds him of the times Azula would hide his robes before ceremonial dinners, and he’d search his entire room and then the whole wing of the palace, and then have to go and ask her where they were.

And then she’d be as unhelpful as ever, and he’d get annoyed and give up and go back to his room, and they’d be right there on the bed, folded up all neat without any creases.

“Sokka calls you it.”

Not to his face, he doesn’t. Agni damn it.

“But, yeah,” Suki continues. “Bujing. He’s a dick.”

“I’ll talk to you about Zhao sometime,” Zuko replies.

“I heard about him,” Suki says. “Sokka told me he thought killing the moon was a good idea.”

“I, uh, never thought that,” Zuko says quickly.

“You’re a bit of an idiot sometimes, Zuko, but you’re not a dick,” Suki tells him, and he sees it and accepts it for the praise it is.

“Zhao learnt firebending from General Jeong Jeong,” Zuko says. “You know him?”

“Sokka says he was a dick, too.”

Zuko frowns. “Jeong Jeong’s nothing like Zhao.”

“People can be dicks in different ways,” Suki says. “Like, Toph’s a dick.”

“Um.”

“Trust me,” Suki assures him. “Whenever she tries sandbending with me? Sand ends up in places it shouldn’t end up. And it’s totally on purpose. Sokka hates it, too.”

Zuko tries very hard not to think about that mental image. “Still.”

“However,” Suki allows. “Even Sokka says she’s not as bad as Jeong Jeong.”

Zuko frowns. “I haven’t even met Jeong Jeong, but I still don’t think he can be as much of a dick as Zhao.”

“Look, I’m sure Jeong Jeong’s a different kind of dick than Zhao,” Suki placates him. “I didn’t exactly ask Sokka to compare them.”

Zuko tries very hard not to think about _that_ mental image either. “So, uh. General Jeong Jeong was the first soldier to leave the Fire Nation Army and make a clean escape. My father ordered the suppression of the leaflets and polemics Jeong Jeong’s forces distributed, as part of a crackdown on propaganda.”

Suki chuckles dryly. “Freedom of speech really means nothing to you guys in the palace, huh?”

_I’m sorry I spoke out of turn!_

He clears his throat. “General Jeong Jeong believes that whilst the Nation sees firepower as strength, our overreliance on power is actually a weakness.”

“I guess that depends on what you think strength is,” Suki says. “Like, what is strength?”

“My father thinks to be strong is to not be weak.”

“Kind of the whole premise of us being here is that we all think your father’s a dick,” Suki replies without batting an eyelid. “Way more of a dick than Toph.”

Zuko sighs. “The Fire Nation’s strength is their strength. How do you turn your opponent’s strength against them when they always have more than you?”

“That’s the same question I’ve been asking myself since I left Kyoshi,” Suki shares. “How do you keep going in the face of adversity?”

_In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength!_

“My, uh, Uncle. He gave me a knife, this one time.”

“I don’t think I’d trust you with sharp objects.”

He must look offended, because Suki laughs.

“I’m good with my swords,” he huffs.

“Pointy sticks,” Suki replies dismissively.

“ _What?_ ”

"Swords don’t count," she explains, waving a hand in the air. " Swing it, stab it, whatever. Anyone can use a sword."

“Don’t let Sokka hear you say that.”

“Sokka knows what’s good for him, Flamey- _sifu_.”

Zuko shudders. “That might actually be worse than Hotman.”

Suki grins. “I’m just kidding, Heaty Sweetie.”

"Oh, come _on_."

“Okay, okay!” She rolls her eyes. “Nicknames aren’t my thing, alright?”

They’re not really Zuko’s thing either, but nobody seems to care. _Whatever_. “So, uh, my uncle gave me this knife.”

Suki is quiet, which means he’s probably allowed to continue. And Suki _does_ call the shots, he’s under no illusions. She’s kind of terrifying.

“And it was made in the Earth Kingdom. That was what was engraved on one side of the blade. But on the other side, it, uh. It said ‘Never give up without a fight’.”

“I like that engraving,” Suki says.

Zuko nods. “I used to think about it. In the dark times.”

“Not that one,” Suki corrects him. “I’m made in the Earth Kingdom, too.”

Zuko doesn’t know if she’s joking or not, so he tries to catch her eye. She looks deadly serious, so he thinks laughing might offend her, so he waits.

But then her mask cracks and she grins at him and gives him a wink, and he laughs.

Suki laughs with him, and it’s nice.

“Come on, Flamey- _sifu_ ,” she says eventually, getting to her feet and offering him a hand. She hauls him up without any hint of effort. “Let’s go say hi to everyone so Aang can apologise for yelling at us.”

“Are you sure?” Zuko asks. He doesn’t want to cause any problems. “I can, um, go back later, or something?”

“You should probably have learnt this by now, Zuko,” Suki replies. “I’m always sure. And I’m always right.”

Zuko cannot argue with that.

Agni only knows that Sokka and Katara are much closer than he and Azula are – maybe closer than they have ever been, even back when Mother made them play together and Lu Ten had given them pastries from the palace kitchens – but they still have arguments every so often. When Sokka had tripped over a bowl he’d left lying around and spilled half their berries and lychee nuts all over the kitchen floor, he’d bolted for the exit and knocked the fruit pie meant for Aang’s dinner off the counter as he went. He’d hidden in his room and locked the door as Katara raged at him through the keyhole about the mess he’d made.

Suki had been there to help Zuko pick up the nuts and clean up the floor, and then she’d helped Katara make a new pie. It had taken most of the afternoon, but she’d still found time to take Sokka out to the stone yard after dinner for a spar. She’d beaten the crap out of him with one hand literally tied behind her back.

“You should probably work on your balance,” she had told him.

“Nyarghh,” Sokka had moaned in response.

Suki had been right about Sokka’s balance, so Zuko thinks she’s probably right about this too.

…

In the morning, it’s just the two firebenders meditating at sunrise. The Avatar manages to mumble his way through the beginning of how he had apologised to Suki last night, looking down at his hands the whole time. Zuko tells him it’s okay before Aang can get nervous enough to bust out the marbles trick. He’s not really sure what to say, so he allows the airbender one (singular) hug. But he doesn’t allow him to get any ideas that this hugging thing is going to become a regular occurrence.

Zuko’s talk with Aang is difficult, but good. They’re okay, and they’re going to be okay.

A firebender understands that it’s always darkest before the dawn.

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to Meg.
> 
> According to Wikipedia:  
> \- [Thai-Chinese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_Chinese) traders such as the Teochew have previously been called _jin-luang_ , or ‘royal Chinese’.  
> \- Lafcadio Hearn writes that a [butterfly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly#In_mythology_and_folklore) was seen in Japan as the personification of a person's soul.
> 
> Avatar Wiki suggests that the [Earth Kingdom](https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Earth_Kingdom) seems to resemble various Chinese dynasties. The general Zuko challenges in ‘The Storm’ is named as [Bujing](https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Bujing).
> 
> The tale of Jin-Luang was inspired by [_Don Quixote_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote). Michael Parkinson applied the imagery of ‘hunting with a net and broadsword’ to Australian cricketer Shane Warne. Any other recognisable quotes are from _A:TLA_.


End file.
